The On Deck Circle

Jonathan Swift once said that no wise man ever wished to be younger. Well, beyond the obvious fact that this makes Mr. Swift sounds like a curmudgeony old man who would very much like you to “get off his lawn with your damn rap music,” he has a valid point.

The passage of time makes us all nostalgic for our youth, but truth be told, most of us were insufferable morons during said youth. Reverting to being even dumber and more ignorant than I am now sounds like the 7^th level of The Inferno.

What does any of this have to do with Game 3 of the 2010 NBA Finals? Admittedly, not that much on the surface, but I mention the phenomenon of taste and intelligence improving with age because it is for precisely this reason that I was able to appreciate last night’s game.

A younger version of me would hardly be doing backflips over a game that saw my childhood hero play selfishly and shoot a gawd-awful percentage. Likewise, the idea of sitting through an 0-for performance from an NBA legend would have sounded less than ideal to a younger version of myself, a version who didn’t see the nuanced beauty and difficulty involved in a team changing how it defends off-ball screens.

What I am (unsuccessfully?) trying to build to is that Game 3 was an ugly game for casual fans everywhere, but that to true hoop-heads, this was a chess match that was so much fun precisely because of its flaws. What did we learn from all this nonsense then?

Top 5 Takeaways

1. Derek Fisher Only Drives Standard: Because he is clutch. Get it? You get it. That doesn’t make it funny…but you get it. Fisher rose to the occasion when it mattered most, and his play down the stretch almost singlehandedly kept the Lakers from handing the game away.
2. “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE”: In reference to Kevin Garnett, who appeared to have an out of body experience last night and managed to locate an avatar model of Circa-2004 Kevin Garnett. The Big Ticket had a bounce in his step unseen at any point over the last two rounds, and was making a ton of difficult shots for good measure. He took the ball to the rim instead of settling for fallaway jumpers, and was rewarded handsomely.
3. Luke Walton Demands Your Respect: You probably won’t give it to him, I realize, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t merited. You would be hard pressed to point to another Laker (outside MAYBE Gasol) who understands his position within the Triangle better than Luke. With his court vision, touch, and ability to post in the mid-block, it seems as if he were born to play in the triple-post. Now if only he could teach Shannon Brown or Jordan Farmar the concept behind proper offensive spacing…
4. Drive Slow, Homey: This shoutout to Kanye serves to highlight the Lakers improvement on transition defense. By getting back, and stopping the ball from moving side-to-side on the secondary break, they prevented the same kind of easy looks Ray Allen and Paul Pierce had in Game 2. That isn’t to say the defense was perfect, as Rondo still got all the way to the rim far too often, but at least he was forced to make very difficult finishes around the basket against the Laker bigs. Transition defense will surely play a big role in Game 4 come Thursday night as well.
5. Mr. Kardashian Is Not Amused: The Boston crowd brought face cut-out of Lamar Odom’s wife as a taunting tool, and while it is unlikely that this is what set LO off, he did nonetheless respond with what was easily his best performance of the Finals, particularly in the first quarter.

Low 5 Takeaways

1. Kobe’s “Lone Ranger” Routine Still Leaves Audience Wanting: Best to leave “lone gunslinger galloping in to right injustices single-handedly” act to George Seaton. While I appreciate that Bryant did other things to contribute to the Lakers victory, he was forced to take far too many bad shots up against the clock, and not all of them were because of poor spacing or lack of ball movement – often Kobe just put himself in a bad position. He can’t revert to being the same volume shooter he was in 2008 or this could get nasty in a hurry.
2. Paul Pierce – Miss Cleo He is Not: Between his claim that the Celtics would be sweeping the Magic in Boston and his now infamous chirp that his team “ain’t coming back to LA,” maybe PP should cool it with the travel forecast and get back to making baskets.
3. The Machine Now Sentient After All: Sasha made an appearance last night for all of 19 seconds but managed to hit both his free throws. I always loved this guy! (*insert awkward, uncomfortable laughter*)
4. Big Baby Will Haunt Your Nightmares: You played great there Grimace, now cool it with the lip-licking and grunting. You look like the love child of LL Cool J and Stay Puff when you do that. Just keep working your tail off down low and you will be praised accordingly.
5. The “Put a Cork In It, Billy Zane” Award: This of course goes out to Doc Rivers, who has zero right to complain as he did after the game about the replay reversal for two reasons. Foremost, the overturned call on Garnett was 100% his fault, as the referees only even thought to review the play because he called an unnecessary timeout. In addition, his team got the ball on a critical play with less than a minute to go precisely because the replay rule is so limited; if you only gain possession because your point guard got away with an obvious foul, you may not want to go throwing stones.